Review of Schools, Classrooms and Pupils, International Studies of Schooling from a Multilevel Perspective

Abstract

book consists of 14 articles based on an international conference held during the summer of 1989 in Edinburgh (UK). I have reviewed the book from two angles. First, I will describe its usefulness as a guide for people who want to know what hierarchical linear models offer where traditional models fail. Second, I will discuss how the book shows applications of multilevel models to data on schools, classrooms, and pupils. I will start by discussing the latter angle. Applications Without exception, the articles are enlightening examples of multilevel analyses with multilevel data, but they differ in their degree of difficulty. two articles most different in their degree of complexity are the article of Paterson, chapter 2, located in the introduction section of the book, and the article of Longford, chapter 9, which is part of the section, Performance Indicators. Longford's article is specialized, intended for the expert, for it shows a new type of application of the multilevel model to factor scores of test items. Paterson's article is a clearly written introduction to multilevel models, intended for the novice that is familiar with the traditional regression model, but not with the hierarchical linear model. This article discusses, in simple and familiar terms, the results of a multilevel analysis. book has five sections. first section is an introduction, a chapter written by the editors which describes the merits of the multilevel model for various types of research in education. second section is entitled Curriculum Coverage, and the third section contains papers on Performance Indicators. Section four consists of two articles which report results of educational interventions, and the last section is entitled The Life of Teachers. different topics of the five sections reflect the many applications of the multilevel model to different fields of study in education. book as a whole is aimed at new users of hierarchical linear models. It serves as a bridge between these new users and statisticians by providing good examples and applications. Readers who considered a similar book edited by Bock (1988) too technical will find the present book more helpful as a source of information, because it contains many applications to different fields of educational research. articles show many different ways to use and interpret the output, for they illustrate how familiar statistics can be